QUESTION: In your book, Democracy, Civic Virtue, and Islam, you state that: "Islam categorizes this recognition of the human individual and his societal destiny as the 'sacred property' of mankind, and eternally enshrines its sanctity in the symbols of the Two Holy Mosques."
Can you elaborate further on how the Ka'aba and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina function as symbols of this sacred property? Also, in allowing an oppressive and unproductive order of imams to dominate our institutions, has Imam W. Deen Mohammed's community lost sight of this sacred property, and thus lost an important element of its legitimacy as an Islamic social body?
IMAM EARL ABDULMALIK MOHAMMED: The sacred properties are defined in the Holy Qur'an and by the Prophet, and they are designated, recognized or characterized by a focused observation of the nature. You have to be awake or enlivened to this, to appreciate it. If you are looking to be shackled with a neck iron, you are not entitled to this understanding, nor will you value it. Nature punishes witting Uncle Toms. Nature demands and supports freedom, then justice. Freedom is upon nature. Justice is upon freedom exercised in the nature. Your pathway to freedom might be fraught with thorns on the road, your feet may become bloody, but your spirit of determination in free exercise and free expression will not register the physical pain above your aim for justice. This is why men and women will give up their lives for real freedom and justice.
It is nothing to say one man died for the sins of the world -that is falsehood and illusion. This is a saying from their mouths, not a statement of truth. The truth is that one quality man, will die to defend his home. One man will die to protect his wife and children. One man will die for his one nation or community. One man or woman will die for the dignity of a quality human existence. This is moving toward the life that nature wants for us. This is our sacred property. This is our natural property. And this is what Islam treats as sacred. First, the entitlement to the properties of nature, and freedom of access to it -this is the Ka'aba, the Ancient House at Bakkah, the ancient name for Makkah. Second, the entitlement to where nature wants us to go with that freedom -this is the Prophet's society at Madinah, the City of Security, the pursuit of man's existence, the purpose of human life -the just order in society. This is what Allah made when He created the man -the human, and then completed him -in society. This is what all people are entitled to. This is their sacred property that Islam honors and guarantees.
Nature shows us what is necessary to sustain the basics of our human life, and it also shows us the stages of development for our human life. And that is what we are speaking of when we refer to the sacred properties. Islamic teaching is solely focused on human life in its origin, and then it focuses the pathway to human life in its highest quality existence. Does man find his purpose before he lives in the origin of his nature? No. Man is first in his origin, then he comes to the realization of his purpose, and that drives him to his finest human self. He must first function in his nature, and by the inherent power of the nature he is propelled to his purpose. Nature wants maintenance and balance, but it is designed for and will not be satisfied unless it is made free for progress. Nature resists oppression. Built into us, as intended and fashioned by our Lord-Creator, is the will to exist and to survive, and also the urge to grow and reach for a success, or our highest purpose. Success is our highest purpose. Islam invites us to the prayer -a blessed step in the direction of success, and then it shows us and invites us to the society of prayer, the success.
The language of the scholars in Islam says the base excellence are our fundamentals of belief, and the high excellence is law or Shareeah. The base excellence is what they call aqeedah, and the high excellence is where aqeedah wants to take us, and that is Shareeah -the perfect and just society. There is no Shareeah without aqeedah. I am using their language to show you the excellence and superiority of Imam W. Deen Mohammed's understanding. He explained this in the language of the Qur'an -the pathway, the road to the Success. The scholars, most of the ones presented to us in the West, speak another language. They do not invite everyone into their understanding. They are looking for those that want a neck iron. That is why Imam W. Deen Mohammed did not borrow from their language. This was not a mistake. This was his conscious, informed choice. He didn't permit himself to speak to us in their coded jargon-speech of aqeedah and Shareeah, like many of these Imams who say they are leading us to correct Islam, do. He spoke to us in Prophet Muhammed's universal language.
Imam Mohammed was true to himself -to his own self-respect as a man, to his own honor as a man, to his own natural claim on human identity as a man, and it was this commitment to embracing the sacred properties of his fundamental nature that formed the mighty foundation that enabled him to see the great destiny for himself, his people, and all mankind. He spoke so eloquently of the excellence of nature, and the just order that nature desires for itself to accommodate the realization of the soul's highest aspirations. He gave us the correct understanding without disrespecting our natural intelligence and our natural urge to be an autonomous people, and because of his commitment and his language, we do not have to use their language to justify our understanding in Islam, or our choices as a Muslim-American community. The understanding he gave us defines for us their use of these terms.
Shame on the charlatans who tout and parade in the false-readings of knowledge to entertain. They are no real Imams under Islam. They are master wizards of a coded terminology, with no firm knowledge in anything other than magic tricks. They masquerade as leaders, but their leadership morality is superficial. They claim to teach faith, but most of them are nothing more than professional wind-making machines and narcissistic purveyors of the smoke and mirror trade. They look regal and righteous, but they produce nothing -the aura of death surrounds them. They are nothing but 'Oz' and the 'Big Show' and their supporters want nothing but ringmasters and a 'Big Top' circus reality. Their establishments are houses of cards, held up by flimsy strings of illusion. They look grand and proud, but a close inspection will show us that their thrones are dung-hills.
Any honest businessman, or honest person of faith, or even an innocent child can look at our condition as a community under them, and see what we have become. These ringmasters have deprived us of a true, dignified, Islamic existence. Swarms of vultures hover above us, while these ringmasters insist that we make grand claims about our status as a Muslim people in America. No one looking at us can see what they want us to claim. Every group looking at us, no matter what perspective they have -religion, business, education, culture, see only the fading image of a beautiful people who once had a remarkable cultural distinction. Ask any of our people that have been around awhile if we have the same Islamic spirit and excellence that we had in the 70's, 80's, 90's and early 2000's. It has been lost.
We have outstanding individuals in every city in America and we have a few excellent leaders, but as a People, we have been assaulted by a flesh-eating, backbiting, slandering, conniving, hypocritical Order of Hyenas, and our people have been gnawed on by their oppressive strategies and tactics for over a decade in various forms. As a result we have become lost to our true and best selves, not recognizable in any honest mirror, or to those who knew Imam W. Deen Mohammed's leadership. As individuals, as families, as believing, loving neighbors we retain our beauty as a Muslim People, but as congregations, and an Islamic people in society we have been horribly abused and misrepresented by a disgusting class of illegitimate leaders. We are Muslims in our nature, but we have been obstructed from our Islamic destiny by the brutal schemes of a false leadership class of hypocrites.
Our friends in the non-Muslim community don't want to hurt our feelings, so they don't speak of our reality. They know we have pride as individuals and families with a true Islamic dignity and they love the memory of who we once were. They would rather shield us from the truth. But, in reality, they know that we are a people that were invited to and turned away from our best life as a People in society. We have permitted the ringmaster-type to flourish among us, and we allowed them to disconnect us from Imam W. Deen Mohammed's clear teaching. Any of these Imams who say differently, lie. They will tell you "I was with Imam Mohammed. I heard the Imam say so-and-so. See, look at how much time I spent with him. See this picture of me and him?" But, listen carefully to what they invite to. And take the time to recall and pay attention to what Imam Mohammed said about them as a collective group. He said with his actions, by separating from them in 2003, that they were not trusted, nor capable, to lead his people after him. And who did he ask to announce his separation from them? His successor.
Obviously then, it would be in their interest, in order to preserve their order, to deny that successor, and to cast as many doubts and aspersions on him as possible, and to orchestrate a scheme to trap him so as to defy Imam Mohammed's plan to free his people from their future designs. Those who are honest and have done some self-reflection know this is the truth. But these fascist ringmasters, they do not want to provide any avenue for the people to see the truth of this -that the clear state of our cultural community condition in nearly every city in this country, is that we have been weakened as a People. They do not want to admit to it because if you are able to see our condition clearly you will also have some perspective on who and what is responsible for it.
They are lying to you and me that they were helpers to Imam W. Deen Mohammed, or his students. They lie to us with grandiose claims to a World Islamic Ministry. How is it possible for them to claim that they have world-wide ministries when they have proven incapable of effectively identifying or addressing any basic community need of their group in one city? There is not a single collective effort under their group to bring into existence anything credible as a workable plan to develop, establish, or improve any of our institutions, the economy of the Muslim community, or our cultural identity as a People.
Look at any one of these leaders or their students, and what they have produced, and you will have a hell of a time identifying anything that our best people can feel comfortable pointing to as an example that we are proud to say belongs to our Muslim group identity. Other than in a few cities where the masjid and schools there continue to fight to exist by way of fierce determinations by strong families who refuse to have their Islamic spirit beat down, there are not any quality institutions that are worthy of our children's sacred potential, while these same ringmasters tell you that our community's late leader didn't want or plan for leadership after him. They continue to repeat the bold, oppressive lie that he did not want or authorize a leader after him. Prophet Muhammed didn't name a leader after him, but the people understood who they should support. The same is true of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad. Oh, how they traffic in lies! They are exactly as Allah reveals Joseph's thinking in the Qur'an about his brothers: "... the worst situated."
Our reality is that we have been undressed, and been made a naked people -trying on, and discarding, assortments of other people's clothing of culture and understanding. It was only a decade ago that we had the suits and dresses of a great culture, and the living heritage of a tradition of great knowledge and teachers. We are now a people whose ringmaster-style leadership has brought punishment to our doorsteps -the punishment that comes with discarding truth for falsehood. No one wants to tell us that our leaders have duped us into discarding our fine clothing of dignity and self-worth, and that in reality we are a people made naked. This is precisely the reason why Allah has raised me from a prison cell. If the free ones cannot do the job, are not ready or equipped, or deny the reality, or have not prepared themselves for the obligation, and will not speak honestly to the condition, then most certainly history shows us that Allah will raise one, whom the corrupted leaders have treated with low regard and estimation, to answer the need and serve the best life and legitimate needs of the people.
Those reading this that want to teach our people the aqeedah and the Shareeah need to sit in this class under Imam W. Deen Mohammed's successor. It is this understanding that our souls as a People are reaching for. Who would be satisfied by pretense and tricks but a cheapened people? These so-called leaders play with that which is precious. They are like break-dancers spinning on their heads. It looks like what they are doing is art and skill, but it is nothing but disrespect for the sacred knowledge -spinning the weight of the body on a head that wants only to entertain. Their language is the tell-tale of their hypocrisy.
The way in which they use these terms are their own machinations. The Prophet's language was clear and discernible. It did not have hidden meanings. It had understanding that was accessible to any honest, pure, sincere soul who was seeking for guidance and answers. The Prophet amplified and demonstrated the Holy Qur'an teaching, and the blessings and lessons of the Ancient House, and the destiny to be realized at the City of Security. These are the two sacred properties, the two sacred entitlements, the two sacred Mosques. This is where our focus must be. This is where Imam W. Deen Mohammed focused his and our attention.
The Prophet said that that which cannot be violated, that which is held sacred, is the blood, wealth, and honor of the Believer. This is plain and direct. It is forbidden, unlawful, prohibited, to deny any human person, access to his or her inherent dignity. The inherent worth of the human identity cannot be taken away. No government can take it away without making the argument that it is an illegitimate government. No political or social movement can take it away. No employer can take it away. No leadership order can take it away. Why? Because if the human individual can be convinced that their most precious property can be bartered or negotiated for any price or compensation, then that which is contained in that property that is the necessary ingredient to bring that human being to his purpose and his Success, can be controlled and redirected.
The Ka'aba had been defiled by trickery and a corrupt order, that took its intended purpose out of service to the human life as G'd intended it. Abraham recognized in his own survey of his nature what G'd intended for him to have as a human destiny, and upon recognition of that and obeying the command and urge placed in him from G'd because of that recognition, he erected a shrine to that inherent recognition. Prophet Muhammed saw his duty to cleansing that Shrine, to make it pure for its intended purpose. But how did he cleanse it? Did he cleanse it only by removing the idols? No. When he arrived at Makkah to remove the idols, he had already achieved the authorization. When Madinah was established as the just order of society, the just and universal example for man's life on the earth as the symbolic City of Security for justice and the ambitions of the free-minded, Prophet Muhammed had already cleansed the Ka'aba. That is why when he returned to Makkah, he was unopposed. He had claimed man's first entitlement when he broke the authority of the oppressive Quraishi order over his heart, and then he claimed man's second entitlement when he established the just order at Madinah. The act of destroying the idols was symbolic. They had already been destroyed in the hearts and minds of the followers of Prophet Muhammed.
We are free to pursue our destiny when we come to this conclusion in the soul. When our people see this again, as Imam W. Deen Mohammed taught us, they will see what their true life is. They will claim it, and they will once again be that "most beautiful people" that Mr. Fard marveled at almost 100 years ago.